Class 2 have been very busy this term. They have learnt about The Great Fire of London in 1666 and have made a 3-D wall display making Tudor houses out of cardboard boxes and lots of lollipop sticks for the timber beams.

 

 

The girls have each designed and sewn their own hand puppet and in groups have written a story in readiness to perform a puppet show to other classes around the school.

 

 

As we approach Christmas there has been a hive of activity and all sorts of crafts have been made - Nativity stable scenes, their own design of Christmas calender, a pop-up father Christmas, angel Christmas cards, glass painting to create a Christmas candle holder and Mr & Mrs Snowman/lady!

 

 

The excitement of Christmas is just beginning to build up in Class 2!

 

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Fifty years ago, on 13th October l958, the book 'A Bear called Paddington' was first published.

Years 1 and 2 have been learning all about Paddington bear. 

Michael Bond, the author of Paddington tells how he invented Paddington. "I bought a small toy bear on Christmas Eve l956. I saw it left on a shelf in a London store and felt sorry for it. I took it home as a present for my wife Brenda and named it Paddington as we were living near Paddington Station at the time. I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun than with the idea of having them published. After ten days I found that I had a book on my hands. It wasn't written specifically for children, but I think I put into it the kind of things I liked reading about when I was young." Michael Bond sent the book to his agent, who liked it and after sending it to several publishers it was eventually accepted and the very first book "A Bear Called Paddington" was published on 13th October l958.

The story goes: Although Paddington now lives in London, he originally came from Peru. After he was orphaned following an earthquake he went to live with his Aunt Lucy and his name then was Pastuso. When Aunt Lucy moved to the home for retired bears, she decided to send Pastuso to England to live. She taught him how to speak English and arranged for him to stow away in a ship's lifeboat. Eventually Paddington arrived at Paddington Station in London which is where the very first story book begins with the words "Mr and Mrs Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform. In fact, that was how he came to have such an unusual name for a bear for Paddington was the name of the station." The Browns were at the station to meet their daughterJudy, when Mr Brown spotted a bear sitting all alone on a suitcase, behind a pile of mail bags, close to the lost property office. The bear was wearing nothing but a hat and a label round his neck bearing the words "Please look after this bear. Thank you." Unable to resist, the Browns took Paddington home to live with them at 32 Windsor Gardens and it was Mr and Mrs Brown that named him Paddington after the station where he was found." .....

Having heard all about Paddington Years 1 and 2 decided they would make Paddington gardens. They divided into groups and using their team skills each group discussed a plan for their garden. They collected various materials - soil, stones, sticks, paper etc and each group assembled their garden. The gardens were then displayed in the junior library for parents to view. 

 

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Ella, Louisa, Alex, Kirsty and Liberty were asked about their day at the Museum. This is what they had to say:-

‘We have been learning about ancient Egypt and today we are going to the British Museum to learn more. 

We met in our classroom. We walked to Woods Gate where our coach was waiting. We were soon on our way to the British Museum.

We arrived at the Museum and had our break outside. We went inside and split into our groups. Our group went upstairs to the Early Egypt Gallery. We saw “Ginger” a skeleton who was 5,000 years old. He was in his coffin. Buried with him were pots, necklaces, tools. These were the things Ginger had saved for the afterlife. We saw pots with body organs in them and we saw Egyptian mummies.

After lunch we went to the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery and we saw the Rosetta Stone. There were hieroglyphs on the stone which told people a lot about Egypt. We wrote the word for cat in hieroglyphs. We drew pictures of some of the sculptures.